McKinsey Quarterly 2023 Number 1

José Andrés: First, you have to recognize that sometimes complex problems require really simple solutions. With World Central Kitchen, we aim to show up in places where people aren’t even able to think about how to get started. And we are able to go at the beginning of an emergency, when it’s really important. The only thing you have to do sometimes is activate teams and start providing relief in the different areas that need relief: gen erators to hospitals, water to the people, food to the people, electricity. It’s the same every time. - Katy McLaughlin: OK, so step one is to prioritize action steps over meticulous planning. What comes next in an emergency response? José Andrés: The only thing I like about emergencies–why I like to go–is they force us to solve short-term problems of food and water with so much energy and efficiency. In emergencies, you see me try new ways of doing things.

helping feed people on the first cruise ship that arrived with COVID-19 cases in America, we felt that we had developed expertise in feeding during COVID-19 outbreaks before anybody else was even talking about COVID-19 in a big way. I announced that I was transforming my restau rants in Washington, DC, into community kitchens [used to prepare food for free distribution to the needy]. I did that in the early days with my restaurants, paid for by us personally, meaning by my for-profit company. - We did that for a few weeks. We could use food that we had on hand, and we kept people working, and we kept paying them. It also proved my concept, and this became the blueprint for what World Central Kitchen did across America to serve thousands of meals. Katy McLaughlin: In sum, emergencies prompt you to try short-term solutions, which, if they work, you can apply to bigger problems. It sounds like emergencies can be high-pressure idea incubators.

For example, around mid-March 2020, after I came back from San Francisco, where we were

Andrés working in a community kitchen serving Ukrainian refugees in April 2022.

© World Central Kitchen

McKinsey Quarterly 2023 Number 1

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